Daisy (dAIsy) is the name of the new chatbot unveiled by O2, the British mobile operator, which aims to lead scammers who try to scam vulnerable people. Here’s how it works.
A very useful tool
Concretely, the AI imitates the voice of an elderly person in real time. When an attacker tries to manipulate a target, they engage in a conversation that will get them nowhere. Even if he manages to ask Daisy for her bank details, he will only receive false information. O2 specifies that it will add the number of its AI to lists of supposedly easy targets that scammers use.
As we can see in a demonstration video, scammers can sometimes spend a lot of time and even get angry at the uselessness of their approach. Unfazed, the chatbot continues to respond to them and this could even last for hours.
Murray Mackenzie, director of fraud at Virgin Media O2, points out:
We’re determined to play our part in stopping scammers, investing in everything from firewall technology to block fraudulent text messages to AI-powered spam call detection to keep our customers safe. Daisy, the newest member of our fraud prevention team, turns the tables on scammers by outwitting and outmaneuvering them into their own cruel game simply by keeping them in line.
Unfortunately, and as our colleagues at Gizmodothe existence of this technology demonstrates that it can also be used by malicious actors. Some have already started and are deploying their chatbots in search of vulnerable people. More than ever, vigilance and awareness of risks must therefore prevail.
A precedent in the United States
In France, telephone canvassing could also be prohibited by default, as long as a person has not given their consent. In any case, this is the objective of a bill which has just been voted unanimously in the Senate.
As a reminder, this is not the first time that such technology has been used. We told you last year about the Whitebeard AI created by the American Roger Anderson. This system can respond directly to telemarketers using OpenAI’s GPT-4 language model, as well as a text-to-speech AI that reproduces a human’s voice.
The idea is also to repeat certain ready-made phrases to waste as much time as possible for unscrupulous actors. To find out more about this tool which has had great success in the United States, do not hesitate to reread our previous article here.
